Dungeon of Niflheim

468 Chapter 468: All-out war

The smell of blood quickly covered the battlefield and corpses once again littered the ground. Wave after wave of these hard-hitting monsters continued to flood out from the treeline. Their massive bulk and powerful limbs allowing them to smash their way into the frontlines with devasting ferocity.

Injuries and deaths continued to grow as time went on, without the aid of arrows and magic the frontline troops were taking an absolute beating. Of course, the monsters were dying even quicker, but numbers were never a problem for their side. The horde would constantly replenish their losses as long the as the stampede was still in progress and the B-ranks in command remained.

The rindar and poison herald knew this, so they felt nothing as wave after wave of trolls, ogres and minotaurs died. As long as the sapients continued to lose men and women it mattered not.

After an hour several dozen soldiers and adventurers had perished and far more sported injuries, things weren’t looking good, the B-rank monsters hadn’t even taken to the field yet.

Frost and the other Major classed fighters ground their teeth as they did their best to cull as many of the monsters as they could, but they were few in number. Their actions were like boulders along the shore, splitting the wave but unable to stop its whole destructive crash upon the cliff. Over time a hole would always be created.

“Ahhhhhhhh!” A young woman screamed in agony as her right arm was torn off by an ogre and she was sent flying backwards, her consciousness fading.

This fall was a major one as she was the last spear wielder in the vicinity. Following her fall the nearby ogres, trolls and minotaurs charged into this gap opening it up and swiftly injuring a dozen or so men and women and even killing another two.

A crunch could be heard from atop the northern wall and the very next second before a troll was about to smash a solider into meat paste Hamon landed with a gaze full of fury.

“[Serpent’s whip]!” With a loud roar he activated a powerful leg skill. A green serpent formed around his leg and grew to over ten metres long before lashing out. The energy formed serpent’s body smashed against the troll’s chest causing it to cave in before the monster was launched backwards slamming into an ogre and another troll.

.....

Following this Hamon clapped his hands together causing runic diagrams to form along his arms. Hamon was a very unique type of mage, one skilled in close combat and creating arrays. His entire body was covered in arrays formed of his own mana and activated with assigned movements or a simple touch making them far more reactive, comparable to chakra in speed.

The diagrams glowed with a purple light and funnelled mana between Hamon’s hands forming a rapidly enlarging sphere.

“[Trigram beam]” Hamon’s hands then formed a triangle shape pushing the sphere of energy into a similar shape before the pressure became too much and it burst forth in a violet purple fury.

The mana beam encapsulated the three monsters affected by his [serpent’s whip] as well as the others that rushed into the gap created sending more than half of them careening through the air while literally disintegrating the rest. This was a very powerful attack, one which Hamon couldn’t use repeatedly.

The purple light lasted for a few seconds before evaporating and revealing a heavily burned ground in front of Hamon. The runic diagrams then swiftly faded and Hamon released a deep breath before giving his orders.

“Quickly recreate the formation!” Hamon didn’t look backwards and simply stood at the forefront of the main line, guarding it like an immovable deity. The nearby soldiers and adventurers stared at his back in awe for a brief second before quickly reorganising themselves into a solid formation.

The woman who had her arm torn off was quickly shuttled to safety and given a potion to staunch the bleeding.

‘That was way too close.’ Hamon thanked his quick reactions as he thought back on the situation. If he hadn’t arrived when he did this gap would have grown and grown and likely caused a cascade of deaths before being rectified. He couldn’t allow such a thing and despite being the commander in chief he launched himself into battle. A decision that saved the frontline but also accelerated the battle.

Without his looming presence on the top of the northern wall the B-rank monsters would come out to play. And as expected the moment Hamon decided to join the battle, the B-rank monsters, the two rindars, the cyclops as well as two new ones, an ogre and minotaur stepped forth.

The eldest rindar and the B-rank poison herald who were overseeing the battle smiled from ear to ear. The enemy commander was the first one forced into the battle, a subtle victory for them.

“Go and cause some havoc.” The eldest rindar gave the order and all the B-ranks under him charged forth joining fray, even the B-rank poison herald joined them. Hamon should be too preoccupied with maintaining the frontline to involve himself with their actions, so he felt confident in entering the battle despite his cowardly nature.

Hamon frowned as he saw this but was powerless to stop it. With a harsh stomp he braced himself before the frontline fully preparing himself to act as a guardian.

“Majors prepare for all-out war!” With a loud roar amplified with his aura Hamon gave an order to Frost and the other B-rank fighters on the ground as well as on the wall. This order enlisted everyone at B-rank level strength so a few majors such as Maggie and Halgrave who were still on the wall jumped down with their weapons in hand.

Hamon also made a hand gesture intended for the captain who would take his place on the wall.

The captain frowned before whispering to a nearby solider who saluted and rapidly descended from the wall, heading deeper into Furano.

Squelch! Frost cut down an ogre with finesse before turning his attention northward. He licked his lips before steadily walking forward.

His ice armour that had received a large amount of damage swiftly repaired itself and his glaive was suddenly engulfed in a fierce silver flame that chilled the surrounding air. His aura that had been growing thicker and thicker with every enemy he slayed started to encompass his body and make him look incredibly intimidating. Nearby D and C-rank monsters felt their bodies being pressured and their base instincts screamed at them to run but with the stampede’s commands the conflict made them sluggish neither attacking nor retreating.

Frost decapitated one such enemy and relished in the sudden surge of DP that filled his body and revitalised some of his expended stamina. He was preparing himself for battle, a grand battle.

After several steps there were no more monsters surrounding him like before in fact, they instinctually gave him a wide berth. Only one monster stood in his path, a veritable giant of a creature with a single eye and visible wounds across its body evident from the last time they clashed.

The cyclops wielded its large stone club with both hands and looked down at Frost with immense fury, its eye swiftly being dyed red as anger took over.

“Rahhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Smaaaaasssshhhhhh!!” The monster roared out as it swung its massive club down upon Frost.

Bang!

With a loud bang the club smashed against the ground but there was no blood, it had failed to strike Frost.

Frost appeared a moment later at the creature’s side, his glaive pried and thrusting towards its rib where a scabbed over wound was already present.

Squelch!

The glaive blade easily slid into the wound reopening it and spilling drops of thick red blood, but such an attack was too shallow to mean anything. The cyclops’s entire body was protected by a thick layer of muscle that Frost struggled to penetrate even with such well-aimed strikes. And after that was the creature’s sturdy bones. The cyclops may not be agile nor smart, but it certainly was strong.

Frost quickly retrieved his glaive after expanding the wound and burning the cyclops’s insides with his cold flame. He then jumped backwards narrowly avoiding the cyclops’s grasping hand. This massive lug was incredibly slow and rather predictable but if he made one mistake then it could be over.

Frost landed a few steps away and readied his glaive once again.

“I’m going to take at least one of your limbs by the end of this.” Frost arrogantly stated with unwavering determination. He planned to go the route of an eye for an eye. Kiba was bedridden with mangled wings and damaged hindlegs thanks to the cyclops, so he wished to return the favour. His glaive may not be able to severely harm it right now, but he improved quickly. By the end of this fight, he was determined to slice through its muscle and even bones.

His will was so strong that he waved a hand gesture to Maggie telling her to leave the cyclops to him alone. A bold and somewhat arrogant declaration but to be honest one that was sorely needed.

With reluctance she led her team to take on the nearby B-rank ogre thus if the situation was truly dire, she may have enough time to run to his side.

A compromise that Frost understood and willingly agreed to as did Hamon.